Rest in Peace

Because I have loved life, I shall have no sorrow to die.

-Amelia Burr-

Just when you thought you start being in control of your life, one little blip and all your world suddenly crumbled upon you.

On Friday night, 26 February 2010, a horrendous car accident tragically took away the lives of our three beloved friends.

Three young fledglings. Full of enthusiasm and brimming with life's excitement.

They had a bright future and all life's glories are waiting on the wings for them.

In a single tragic chain of events , they are all gone.

Now,

all we can find are their unfulfilled dreams and their precious talents seemingly wasted inside their graves.

What a shame.

Now, when surely "what if" and "why them" questions are reverberating around this fateful event, let's not judge them and condemn this tragedy as one caused by their own faults.

I criticize those who jumped into ridiculous conclusions that they were involved in a bad group of friendship and were drunk while they were driving for the last time in their lives.

Yes. A mistake had definitely been made.

And yes, perhaps some of those assumptions people made might turn out to be true.

But they were teens, still on their 15 and 16. Don't you guys remember when you were on that age?

Those times when we got curious in about everything we find, when we were stubborn and felt that we knew more things than our parents and elders, when we would do just about anything to fulfill our need for excitement.

You do make mistakes on these years. Mistakes that will make you learn and become stronger, and eventually become an adult.

Unfortunately, they had no chance to do this due to the ruthfulness of this tragedy.

Maybe an avoidable tragedy. But nevertheless an unfortunate one as well.

Condemning them won't do any justice. It actually will make things worse.

They are gone, and nothing can change this dreadful fact.

For now, let's remember that they are already in a better place, somewhere out there, somewhere we could never know until the day we followed on their footsteps.

They do not have to face problems and all the disasters in this awful world poses anymore. In fact, right now they maybe smiling at us from above with the most Holy.

For the loved ones left behind,

I can only offer the deepest of condolences i can give.

I know there are no words good enough that can console and comfort you guys from this great loss. All i can say that the One above has a masterplan that we can never understand fully until the day we meet Him, eye to eye. And on that time, He will say "See?" to us all and we will all see the wonders of His magnificent plan.

For my beloved who lost their lives,

I don't know you and I don't need to know you guys to know that you are all wonderful persons. I assure you that your sacrifice won't be in vain. We will all learn from this and remember you for showing us the beautiful meanings of life. That's why we will all miss you here, as we still have you in our hearts.

We are sure that you are happier now in that beautiful place we will all call home when our times come. The day when will meet again will surely come.

And who knows, if you look at the way the world is unfolding each day, with all the tragedies and disasters coming at us, that day could come sooner rather than later.

Rest in Peace

Nikita Putri

12/03/1993 - 26/02/2010

Rio Hartanto

01/10/1992 - 26/02/2010

Erfin Januar

12/01/1993 - 26/02/2010

God bless

My big apology if i posted some informations incorrectly, as i got it from various sources of information.

Awww, so tweet!

As we welcome the new year of the Tiger, there's nothing wrong to look back at last year and all it's happenings.

Last year was supposed to be the year of the Ox. But instead it turned out to be the year of the Bird. Yes, the Twitter bird.

For you who have not even tried Twitter yet, well, shame on you.

For you who don't even know Twitter yet until now, then we can tolerate you don't worry. You must be spending your time in the prison last year.

Twitter has truly eclipsed Facebook as the "IN" social site currently.

The word "follow" and "retweet" are already household names by now.

It is somehow ironic that honestly Facebook can say that Twitter is not any better than them. It is even a few steps back from their super social and interactive world, considering you can only send 140 letters message to the screen to show to the world. It's just like updating your status in Facebook without any significant difference!

So why so Tweet?

Well, in the world that is gradually deducing the value of privacy, Twitter seems to be the perfect remedy. You are free to follow anyone you want and decide which ones of your followers are your true friends. In this way, you will keep your privacy completely intact and eliminate all spammers, blackmailers, and all the crap stuffs in the IT world.

And also, the Star quality in Twitter is a main attraction for people to tweet regularly.

They can follow Barack Obama, Ryan Seacrest, Lady Gaga, and all other famous names in the world right now.

And they are all REAL. Not just some jobless guy without anything to do creating a fake account and imitating to be them. That's just lame.

And although you are not directly related to them when you follow them (unless they follow you back-and you must be one damn lucky guy to have them do that), but psychologically, the truth is : we humans will still feel close to others if we regularly hear from them. So just by reading Barack Obama's daily tweets, we can still feel as if we are his close mates and fellow Democrats (they suck bad to be honest, the 'change' never happens).

I think these reasons should push you enough to start Tweeting as a daily activities just like eating and sleeping.

Who knows in a few months, you will see this line below on you account.

BarackObama @edowk thanks dude! See you around!

Va Va Voom

the diamond and the charcoal

Now is Friday, February 05, 2010.

A few minutes ago I was still in Orchard Road, indulging dinner with my besties.

While in Botak Jones you will always have damn good food in damn good price, it’s the talking and sharing with your friend is what that matters.

I can’t imagine a world without friends to be honest.

I will be the most miserable creature on earth if not for my friends. They surround me and refresh me everyday. While family is the one you keep inside your heart every time, friends are the ones you should keep in your mind.

But true friendship is not that easy to find.

Every people in the world will want to be near you when you are high. Those who are your true friends are the ones that will still be around you in the bad times.

From my experience, I think guys and girls define friendship differently.

As a guy, it is sometimes weird to see how girls become best friends in 1 second and suddenly be arch enemies the next second. And yes, it is that easy to happen.

Tell you what, girls usually call each other with “hey love” or “hey sweetie”, and they don’t mind hugging or cuddling in public as if they are lovers. Now let me tell you what, they are not that close and that loving to each other like that. They can say good words in front of you and tell bad things to others behind your back. It must be worrying to have a friendship like that.

Now I’m not saying this because I want guys to have the same treatment as the girls’. Let’s face it, we won’t hug or hold hands in public, that would be so gay and disgusting. But we guys have a different nature in their friendship. We respect each other even if we do not like each other, and we always take it easily. Even if someone makes some mistakes to one another, the rest of the group will say “Chill bro, don’t worry, it’s not a big thing.” We treat each other like a ‘brother from another mother’ and forgiving seems not to be a big problem in our friendship. Life is good in our world, so why bother?

Take note, I’m not saying that everything is like what I mentioned above. In fact, I have seen girlfriends who help and support each other, and have a quality friendship. And on the other side, I have seen guys doing wrong things to each other as well.

Also I’m not offending anyone here, believe me. Neither am I saying bad things about girls only because I’m a guy. Now why would I do that? I mean, we all guys agree that women are the GREATEST CREATION from GOD. Just ask Adam. Imagine how happy he was when God sent Eve to accompany him. Even if Eve looked like shit, she was still by far the most attractive creation on earth, compared to zebras, lions, palm trees, and giraffes!

But this is the ugly truth and you know it.

It is a case of a diamond and a charcoal.

Girls’ friendship looks like a diamond from the outside. Glamorous, lavish, and simply always looks like the best place to be in this planet Earth. But on the inside, it is like a charcoal which is frail and vulnerable. It only needs the smallest of pressure to crack up and break down.

Boys’ friendship on the other hand is like a charcoal from the outside. It may looks dull, unattractive, and lacking liveliness. But we are a diamond on the inside. Strong and powerfully structured, you need quite a rare source of strength to break us down.

Va va voom

Nurture or Nature?

Thursday, January 2010 01.23 A.M

Phew! Isn't today a long day.

Woke up at 9.30 then bluff all my accounting HW, rush to school at 11 coz I had a meeting at 12.

Being an SMU student is super tiring.

Like my friend Nikhil Anthony Jonas said now in his Facebook status:

you want a fast paced life, state of the art workplace, endless travel opportunities, make or break meetings? Then SMU is the place to be.

Cheers Nik!

Well this certainly is not the picture of the university life I had in my mind a couple of months back in high school; where freedom is abundant and life is good. Well, maybe it is supposed to be good. But in other places, like in the States or somewhere further there. Certainly NOT in SMU. Although i can generalizes it as in Singapore, as I am perfectly conscious that all my mates in NTU, NUS, SIM, etc are feeling the same thing. lol.

Well, i got class at 3.30 just now. It's a 3 hour class so it ended around 6.45 P.M Singapore time.

Then i went out for dinner with my solitary Indonesian friend, Oka Sutedjo, near school.

It was a quick meal to be honest, as we rushed back to school around 8 for a specially arranged KNOW THY MAJOR Talk for students.

Basically it's a quick briefing with all the majors you can take in SMU and because there is a LOT of them in SMU, I think it is good for me to be there so there were I.

Today's session is bout Finance. The most favourite major in SMU currently.

And it is not hard to see it, as I had to sit on the floor just now as all the seats are occupied. I do wonder sometimes if it's going to be similar like this when it's time for me to apply for jobs. Seeing people who is more experienced than you, more confident than you, more skilled than you, more intelligent than you, all competing for one place in a company. It's definitely a scary thought.

So the Prof ( I didn't get to know his name as I was late for the talk) started explaining finance and all the things you need to know about that word.

And here are some things that I put down in my note,

- Finance is for those who love numbers, information and making a decision.

- Key points to excel in finance are the passion/drive to learn and work, an interesting personality: one that is not afraid to make risky decisions, one who always knows what is going on, and lastly self confidence.

- Working in finance is most likely to be demanding. You might only sleep 2-3 hours EVERYDAY. You basically spend your whole day on your chair, staring at numbers, then going home to your lovely family at 3 A.M in the morning. The level of stress is unimaginable, especially if your stock just plunged down in the stock exchange. Cool head is a necessity. Your work must be perfectly perfect, as it can determines whether your company gained a 10 million profit or a 10 million loss too. The best of luck is vital.

- If you excel in finance, you will be rewarded handsomely. So handsome that you don't need your face to be handsome anymore to attract chicks.

Of course the last point is my personal interpretation. Guys with a PhD just don't say chicks like us, do they.

I must admit after listening to those points, i became more intimidated than attracted to apply for the finance major.

First of all, the Prof is just rubbish. He's not natural and engaging in his sayings. Definitely not a public speaker (refer below later on).

True, the reward is very,very attractive. But that is after years of suffering and insomnia (3 hours sleep everyday, what the hell?). I can't imagine how miserable i will be on my way there. If i'll ever be there, that is.

Pity, that the pursuit of happiness will almost always be terribly unhappy.

To be honest, I'm more into advertising and marketing than to finance.

I always love advertising and all those creative ideas in them, it always keep me interested and i think it is super fun to do that, or maybe, just maybe, work like that.

But the problem is i don't think i am a good public speaker.

There are people out there that can speak for two hours instantly without even given a script to refer to, and I do admire them.

When you listen to them, you can feel there is some power in their words and it demands all the attention of the whole room to shut up and listen.

Great speakers can know absolutely nothing about something, but talk about it for the next 2 hours non-stop with a tone so convincing that people will suspect that they are masters at that thing.

Like last semester, I met with the Head of Search of Microsoft SE Asia, Chewy Chong when he visited my class.

He did not prepare any materials or anything but it was just pure impromptu 15 mins talk.

But boy doesn't he speak well, he inspired the whole class in that 15 mins, even though his talk was basically rubbish!

Unfortunately, i do not belong to that group. Not yet at least.

I must admit that naturally i am better at numbers than at this talking crap stuffs.

But isn't public speaking a skill too?

One that can and needs to be trained and tested to get results from?

What if i'm passionate about it?

Don't you think i should at least try to learn it rather than forget about it?

I sent Chewy an email and his reply certainly give me the answers to my questions.

People tell me that I’m a good public speaker. What people don’t see is that my leg shake every time I get up to do a prezo. Public speaking sucks and makes me nervous. Especially if I speak on things I am not passionate about or do not know much on. My first public speaking was when I was in high school for a job. It made me so nervous, I had to stop the presentation 15 mins in and walk around the parking lot to calm down then go back in.

Strength does not equal good. Strength in my mind means there is a potential to make it good. We are not talking about natural talents. In the case of public speaking… it is a skill just like being a doctor. All those doctors all sucked when they started. If they all dropped out… haha, we all be screwed. J

So it's simple then.

Is it Nurture or Nature?

That's the question.

And i'm the one who have to find it out the answer

in my next couple of years.

Numero Uno

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."

-Confucius

Hey y'all,

ini actually post perdana gw di dunia blogging haha so spare me, i'm still inexperienced in these stuffs :)

Gw sbnrny juga bingung knp tiba2 kok jdi kpengen ngeblog, pdahal blog ud dr jaman baheula punya. But i guess Facebook and those sites kinda bore me so yeahh here i am.

What motivates me to blog?

Hmm. Just knowing that sometimes I think I have a lot to share with others. And isn't that the only fun part in this world nowadays? Sharing your joy with your besties.

Other than that, nowadays i often feel kinda lonely coz I lives alone in a huge apartment that is pretty spacious so yeah. The truth is, being lonely is the worst feeling in the world.

I like to be alone sometimes but absolutely hates to be lonely. It just sucks to find no one is around you just to talk to you or cheer you up.

So i hope i can find more solace here in the blog world, when i can't afford it in the real world.

How and what i want my blog to be?

I want my blog to be..

Raunchy and sometimes a bit naughty.

I also want it to be as controversial as it can be. We love controversial stuffs, don't we?

Fun filled and emotion filled.

Tapi yg pasti semuanya yg gw post d blog ini bakal asli dari my mind and my heart, honest and 100% original, jadi jangan ragu kalo mau berdebat haha.

I will post all things here: my daily diary, pictures, plans, feelings. Basically everything I've been up to everyday.

And i assure you it will be a quality blog (LOL) so watch out for it!

Okay segitu dulu for my 1st post,

for now,

please take care

Good night sleep tight and

don't let the bed bug bites you

Love,

Ed'

va va voom

Jan 28,2010 02:34 A.M.